Okay, this book is basically just a bunch of random tables to help you generate adventures, monsters, items, etc. for a fantasy setting. It's basically just a massive collection of Oracles (to use the Ironsworn lingo).

That being said, it's an incredible collection of oracles and just gets your brain turning. The biggest issue I have is that the tables are not hyperlinked in the document, so expect a lot of page-flipping. Though considering all the references between tables, it would probably just be web-app at that point...

Art is minimal but that's fine. Most tables have multiple columns and require multiple percentatile dice to roll. Every table just needs percentile dice, so you don't need to track multiple die types and can easily get away with a random number generator if you want. The whole thing is just crammed full of content.

I'd say this is highly recommended! But just be ready for the creative overload you will get as you go into this. I suggest that you start small and don't try to skim through the whole thing like I did the first time

This book... it is... *chef kiss*!

From an RPG standpoint: This is the only version of a fantasy D20 that interests me. I'm not a fan of hitdice, armor class, spells-per-day or levelling mechanics, but this game has got me excited to try them again. It takes lessons and mechanics that Crawford has learned across his previous works (e.g. Godbound, Stars Without Number) and incorportated them into something flexible and meaty without getting bogged down in complexity. While it may look at first that there are only 4 classes (which I call "skill-monkey", "casty", "stabby" and "undecided") the use of skills, foci and arts are what really let you make a character so much more interesting and different than appears at first glance.

Foci and arts give you lots of ways to change your character up, and really change the rules and abilities for them. Want to make an agile fighter that dances across the battlefield and avoids every attack on their path? The "Close Combatant" foci has you covered. Want your little animal companion - a pet hamster - to become the most feared beast in the world? Take the "Shared Vitality" art as a beastmaster and watch little Hammy take on wolves as you level up. Want to learn how to toss bad guys into walls like a pro? The Vowed class's "Hurling Throw" art will teach you how to toss COWS!!!!

These change up the abilities of your characters so much it's a thing of beauty for me to read! And you get access to them readily and easily - so you can pretty much make any character you want!

And from a combat side? The rules are quite simple and surprisingly tight. Shock damage means that you and your enemies will very often be doing at least some harm to each other, which combines with the relatively low HP of everything to keep combats fast, fluid and wonderfully lethal. No one wants to be in a fight, and just because your armor can take a hit doesn't mean you don't still feel that warhammer smacking into you. Snap attacks give advanced warriors and desparate defenders a method to retaliate against their foes, and the requirement for a mage to not take damage so they can finish casting a spell results in "gank the mage" being a far more viable option than I initially expected.

From a GM/Toolbox Standpoint: Okay, if the RPG part didn't convince you - either because you despise OSR games or something I said above just didn't click - then I would still recommend this book as a source for fantasy inspiration and worldbuilding. ~3/4 of this book is just for helping the GM create adversaries, create adventure seeds, populate the world with interesting and attention-grabbing locations, people, societies and conflicts. Factions can be statted out and their mechanics allow them to actively fight and compete over your world (with the PC's actions able to directly modify their capabilities).

And thanks to tools like the Azgaar fantasy map generator, you can generate a world in no time (just turn on a 6-mile hex grid and your players can start exploring!)

And the best part - it's system neutrual!!! While factions and creatures will definitely follow the OSR-style mechanics, the settings details are there for fluff and world building so you can import all of this to any other game or story you want.

As a final point, the OSR-style rules also make it easy to port other creatures, mechanics and ideas from OSR games with little effort - with Crawford's other games (e.g. Stars Without Number, Spears of the Dawn, Other Dust, etc.) being very easy to port over.

Conclusion: For the pricepoint of this deluxe PDF alone, I whole-heartedly recommend this book. The fact that there is a FREE version as well which contains everything I said above means that you can also try it out before you put your money down - which makes this one of the safest purchases and consumer experiences you can make!

Seriously, this is one of the best RPGs I own. This gets me excited to both play and run a game. This gets me stoked for fantasy worldbuilding in a way that nothing else nowadays does. And if this is what the heart of the OSR movement is, I can 100% see why it's coming back.

I think this game is absolutely amazing, and I want to encourage everyone who is on the fence to give this one a shot!

I'm rating this 5 stars, but consider this more of an impressions after skimming through the book than a super-thorough review.

Pros

• Abstracts wealth and focusing on the socio-economic impact of cybernetics rather than losing your soul or sanity (THANK YOU!!!!)
• Socializing and sneaking are just as mechanically interesting as fighting
• Amazing artwork and cool setting
• If Apocalypse World is Light Crunch and Pathfinder 2e is Heavy Crunch, I'd say that this is a comfortable Medium-Light Crunch. Some healthy mechanical depth to it but remains accessible and doesn't drown you in math

Cons

• Artwork is sparse
• Some of the rules could be more clearly stated/laid out to make referencing easier (I'm still a bit confused as to how many dice I roll on tests, but I'd bet I just overlooked something)

So super good stuff, and a great take on a more hopeful cyberpunk future. Give it a look - I haven't regretted spending any money on this!

Honestly, I had a friend show me his PDF a while ago (he was a Kickstarter backer) and I ordered a copy the day it showed up on DTRPG.

The artwork? Superb! I love this more blocky, minimalist style. But the best part by far is how consistent the artwork is in both style and quality throughout the book. It gives it a sense of singular vision that just oozes personality.

But otherwise, it's a great variant of the Forged in the Dark ruleset! I love the use of clocks, the breakdown of play, the free-form spells/crafting and especially the mechanics designed to encourage you to actually make a fantasy dungeon. It's a great game, backed up by a tried-and-true ruleset. I highly recommend that you check this out if you have the slightest interest in the ruleset, the artwork, the idea of running your own fantasy dungeon or of just being the bad guy.

Love it, can't wait to play it! It's getting a special spot on my RPG shelf and to-play list :)

Also, I recommend you check out the actual play the developers made if you are interested: https://youtu.be/EXO-69U26c0